site.btaCaretaker PM Gerdjikov Says Proposal for Limiting Voting by Expatriate Bulgarians "Thing of the Past"

Caretaker PM Gerdjikov Says Proposal for Limiting Voting by Expatriate Bulgarians "Thing of the Past"

Sofia, April 12 (BTA) - Approached to comment whether he knows of the intention of caretaker Justice Minister Maria Pavlova to resign and whether there was pressure to publish again withdrawn proposals relating to voting by Bulgarians living abroad, caretaker Prime Minister Ognyan Gerdjikov said that "this is a thing of the past".

"There was a problem 24 hours ago. There is no problem now," Gerdjikov said.

Last week the Justice Ministry posed on its website a Bill to Supplement the Bulgarian Citizenship Act for public consultation. This draft legislation gave rise to a heated controversy as it proposed, by amending the Election Code, the introduction of three-month residence qualifications for voting in parliamentary and presidential elections, practically disenfranchising about a million and a half expatriate Bulgarians. On April 5 the bill was withdrawn and Lyubomir Talev - the Ministry employee who allegedly posted it "without clearance with the Minister of Justice and in violation of an effective order," was dismissed.

The Ministry found that Talev acted intentionally, aiming to discredit the institution, because the bill published for public consultation had not been consulted with the Ministry.

However, in various media outlets Talev said that the controversial amendments were written by Emilia Droumeva, who is Legal Secretary to President Rumen Radev and a former Constitutional Court member.

In an address to the nation on Tuesday President Rumen Radev said that at the March 26 early parliamentary elections "we witnessed an organized attempt for exerting an external influence on the election results. [...] After years of waste of the national sovereignty, responsible and efficient legislative and organizational actions are needed today".